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Being THAT parent

Today is one of those days where I constantly feel on edge wondering if an asthma attack is looming. There are a number of early warning signs before A has an attack, but they're all things that could be indicative of something far less serious. Today she was a bit out of sorts, looked a bit pale, coughed once or twice and had a couple of meltdowns. All of these could be easily explained by being a bit tired (baby L kept us on the go last night waking a record 5 times), looking pale probably because we didn't do a great job of washing the white and black face paints off yesterday (she was a cow, she likes cows, she wasn't 'being' a cow, just to be clear!), and coughing because she's perhaps just... clearing her throat.

But it sometimes feels impossible not to panic about every cough and sneeze, run to the cupboard to check the medication stash and hesitate to take her out in the cold just in case that triggers another attack.

Overall I think we're quite good. Yes we can attempt to minimize the amount of people with colds that she comes in contact with, but really? She goes to nursery! All the kids are coughing and sneezing over her, what can we do about that other than just accept that the way to build a healthy immune system is to come in contact with some bugs here and there? I must admit though, that it is so hard not to be THAT parent who molly-coddles and won't allow your child out in the cold/fog/rain, to mix with other kids during the winter or to do absolutely anything when they seem a bit out of sorts, it's a constant battle and on days like today I think I've lost, but we must keep trying to balance fear with reality and symptoms with medication.

Having said all that I rushed Baby L to the Docs on Wednesday with a cough. Sooooo lost all sense of what's normal when a young child has a cold. The Dr was lovely, but one must remember that a cough and cold isn't a state of high emergency for most kids ;o)

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